Teaching, learning and assessment 2023/2024

Pearson Development Hub is our dedicated exams officer training space, which has two interactive learning modules that will prepare you for results day. We also have a live session where you can ask questions to our panel of experts on the 7 August at 2pm. If you can’t make this, you can access the recording of our July session in Pearson development hub. 

Explore Pearson development hub and enrol on our live sessions 

This year for BTEC level 2 Firsts, Technials and Tech awards (2016) we are releasing results a week earlier under embargo. This is in response to feedback from schools and colleges, who have said they need more time to conduct final checks on their results before issuing them to learners.

• BTEC level 2 Firsts, Technicals and Tech awards (2016)  - Results released to centres 16 August 
• BTEC level 2 Firsts, Technicals and Tech awards (2016)  - Results released to learners 24 August 

BTEC Level 2 Tech awards (2022) are not included in this earlier embargo release.

• BTEC Tech awards (2022) – results released to centres 23 August
• BTEC Tech awards (2022) – results released to learners 24 August

(The embargo relates only to registrations that are pending an external assessment result from summer 2023. Qualifications that are 100% internally assessed or are not awaiting an external assessment result from summer 2023 are not embargoed and can be released at your discretion) 

This year for BTEC level 3 Nationals we are releasing results a week earlier under embargo. This is in response to feedback from schools and colleges, who have said they need more time to conduct final checks on their results before issuing them to learners. 

• BTEC level 3 Nationals – results released to centres - 9 August 2023
• BTEC Level 3 Nationals – results released to learners - 17 August 2023

(The embargo relates only to registrations that are pending an external assessment result from summer 2023. Qualifications that are 100% internally assessed or are not awaiting an external assessment result from summer 2023 are not embargoed and can be released at your discretion) 

You can access our knowledge base article, exams officer results day essentials, which covers our most frequently asked questions and details the important processes that you’ll need to carry out over results and the post-results period. 

Read our exams officer results day essentials article 

You should speak to your school or college’s exams officer, and they must contact us immediately, on 0344 463 2535 or through the Pearson support portal. There could be some information missing from their registration, such as a qualification claim or an internally assessed unit. We can check this for you and work together to resolve any outstanding actions. 

Where BTEC claims or outstanding information was submitted after the 5 July we can’t guarantee learner results will be issued on time in August. We are doing everything we can to minimize any impact on learners and will be issuing as many results as possible on time for results day. 

They will be available on Edexcel online on embargo results day, for exams officers, head of centre and senior teachers. We also send results via EDI to those schools and colleges that have requested them. You should talk to your exams officer if you need to access your results.

Read more about how you can receive your results 

Grade boundaries will be sent to exams officers, exams assistants and exams managers through their Edexcel online mailbox on embargo results day.  Grade boundaries, mark schemes and lead examiner reports will be made available on our website the day before learner results day under gold padlock, and then on learner results day under silver padlock. If you encounter any problems accessing these documents please speak to your school or college’s exams officer. 

You can use our BTEC grade calculator to see how a learner’s grade is calculated using the results for each of their units. 

Download our BTEC grade calculators

This year the Government confirmed that exams, external and internal assessments should go ahead as planned. Ofqual has set out their plans for awarding qualifications in 2023 and their plans to return to a normal, pre-pandemic approach to grading this summer for A levels, AS levels and GCSEs, as well as for vocational qualifications. Our guiding principle and approach to awarding BTEC qualification results in 2023 is to return to pre-pandemic performance standards, but with checks and balances that allow us to be sensitive to the disruption you have faced (just as for A levels and GCSEs).

We aim to ensure that you are not advantaged or disadvantaged, as far as possible, compared to those studying for GCSEs and A levels.

You can read our BTEC centre guide to results to find out more about how BTECs are awarded.

Download the BTEC centre guide to results

A group of subject and technical experts set grade boundaries (the number of marks needed to achieve a certain grade) after each external assessment has taken place. They review a range of evidence to make sure there is fairness, validity and robustness in the grade boundaries recommended. It is important to remember that the grade boundary decisions for external assessments make up a small proportion (around 40%) of a BTEC qualification and are combined with internal assessment unit grades to give you your overall qualification grade. For GCSEs or A Levels, the grade boundary will be their final grade for their whole qualification as they are assessed at the end of their qualification in an exam. This means that you can’t directly compare the grade boundaries for the externally assessed exams as they are used differently in BTECs and in GCSEs or A Levels. CTA:

Read our BTEC centre guide to results to find out more about how BTECs are awarded.

Download the BTEC centre guide to results

If a learner has applied to university through UCAS, and have added a BTEC registration to their application, then we do send these results to UCAS. We send a file to UCAS in July ahead of results day, and then daily throughout the results weeks to capture any changes to results. If a learner has any questions about whether UCAS have received their BTEC result, they should contact UCAS directly. If a learner needs a BTEC result sent directly to a university, please contact us immediately on 0344 463 2535, or via the Pearson support portal.

You should speak to your school or college’s exams officer and check that all the internally assessed units have been submitted to us accurately. If there has been an administration error you should contact us immediately on 0344 463 2535 or through the Pearson support portal. If an error hasn’t been made, you may want to access our post-results services.  

If you have a concern about a learner’s result you can apply for a post-results service, such as a review of marking. You must have the learner's written consent to do this, as the grade could go up, down, or stay the same following review of marking or moderation. 

Find out more about post-results services available 

After you’ve received the outcome of a post-results service, such as a review of marking, you can apply for an appeal. You will also need the learner's written consent, as the grade could go up, down, or stay the same following an appeal. 

Read our BTEC appeals decision tree to find out if you could submit an appeal.

Download the BTEC appeals decision tree

Access to scripts is a service which is included with a BTEC registration fee and is available for many of our BTEC external assessments. Before accessing a script you will need the learner’s written consent. You will need an Edexcel Online account, with “exam viewer” access on your account. If you don’t have this, you should speak to your exams officer.  

Read more about our access to scripts service 

We are working to the Ofqual announced checkpoint deadlines, for these in-scope qualifications. 

Checkpoint 1 - 26 May 2023 : The latest date by which awarding organisations must have agreed with schools and colleges which students should expect to receive a result by 17 August.

We asked you to complete a Head of Centre declaration in February confirming the learners that you are expecting to complete their BTEC qualification in August 2023. We’ll be reminding you to keep your cohort up to date, by making any changes such as withdrawals. If there has been a significant change to your cohort we may be in touch to confirm these changes. 

This is part of our work to maintain a shared view of your summer 2023 BTEC cohort. In June we will then begin to share learner-level tracking reports to your Head of Centre and Exams Officer for your summer cohort, so you can see if they are on track to receive a qualification result or if any action is required.

Checkpoint 2 – 23 June 2023: The latest date by which awarding organisations must have agreed with schools and colleges on the remaining information or evidence needed for each student to receive a result.

We’ll be in touch in early June to start providing this information through regular reports to your Head of Centre and your Exams Officer. By 23 June we will have a shared view of any missing information or action that needs to be taken for learners to receive their on-time qualification results.

As part of our commitment to offer enhanced support for BTEC in 2023, we will be sending you a weekly BTEC learner tracking report. This is the most detailed learner reporting we have offered, and you can now easily see where your learners are on track to receive a result in August 2023, and where you need to take action. 

The first of these reports was sent on 6 June to your exams officer's Edexcel Online mailbox. We will continue to send these weekly throughout June and into July. All the learners listed in your report are the learners you have confirmed to us are expecting a result in August 2023.

Claiming Deadline 5 July

We are expecting all centres to have made their full award claims by 5 July. This is the latest date you can make a claim for us to guarantee learners will receive an on time result in August 2023. We’d encourage you to make your full award claims as soon as you can so that you have plenty of time to work through any outstanding actions with us.

How do I use these reports?

These reports are CSV excel files, which can be shared with colleagues you may need to work with to resolve issues and work on actions. We have included a summary tab which gives you an overview of your whole summer cohort, along with your learner-level details. On your learner data tab, every learner will be listed with a status. No current action means they are on track to receive a qualification result in August, and any other status will need centre action.

You’ll also see a UCAS column, to flag where learners have applied to university through UCAS

Read the BTEC learner tracking status list

In order for us to support you and your learners to receive their results on time, you must ensure that:

• Registrations and entries are made on time.
  Estimated completion date for each learner are accurate and up to date.
• That you have made accurate top-ups, where a learner is moving onto a larger qualification. (Where you do not do this, we will look to identify these incorrect registrations and work with you to resolve. Learner unit results must all appear under the same registration, the system will not automatically aggregate these for you.)
• That you have taught and assessed the correct combination of units for the course the learner is registered on. You can check this using the specification, or the BTEC grade calculator.
• That you have successfully achieved a Standards Verification ‘certification release’, through sampling of centre assessment decisions.
• You make a full award claim once all internal unit achievement has been reported and all external units have been sat or have a pending result. Where a qualification result does have a pending external exam result, the Full Award claim should be made by:

5 February - learners certificating following the release of a January result.

5 April - learners certificating following the release of a March result.

5 July - learners certificating following the release of a May/June result.

• Should a learner wish to decline an overall grade following the release of any external assessment grades, in order to resit, this can be done on request prior to certification. BTEC Tech Awards (2016) will only be awarded once annually, in line with the summer (August) results days.
• Pearson will give you information in support of achieving timely results, where there is a planned completion date occurring within that academic year. Pearson will be in touch with your exams office and require confirmation from the head of centre of all learners due to certificate in 2023. Any changes or omissions to this confirmation could result in delays to results for your learners.

Thank you in advance for your support in ensure timely certification for your learners.

For further guidance and information please check out our support articles on eligibility.

There are no adaptations in 2022/2023, which means that all external assessments must take place as scheduled.

Timetables

You can find final timetables for January, February, March and summer 2023 on our timetables page.

Conducting external assessments

Our policies and guidance for conducting external assessments can be found in the BTEC Instructions for Conducting External Assessment (ICEA) document. Policies for the conduct of examinations and General Regulations, can be found on the JCQ website.

Further support on conducting our task-based assessments can be found in the individual unit’s Administrative Support Guide (ASG). You can find these ASGs by selecting the External assessments button on the left of the Course Materials tab, found at the top of each qualification’s webpage. 

Secure download assessments can be accessed from our secure test webpage.

Please see our exams officer support pages for more information on conducting external assessments. 

On demand assessments

All on-demand external assessments for BTEC Level 2 Firsts and Technicals are available for booking via Edexcel online.

In relation to adaptations, Ofqual confirmed previously that:

“For other qualifications, including vocational and technical qualifications taught alongside or instead of GCSEs, AS and A levels, a range of adaptations were permitted in academic year 2021 to 2022. […] Given that public health restrictions are no longer in place, these adaptations are no longer necessary for the academic year 2022 to 2023 onwards.”

This means our main adaptation of streamlined assessment will not be available in 2022/23, so you must plan to teach and assess the BTEC qualifications as normal. 

Ofqual have also released guidance on grading assessments in this academic year. You can read more about the Ofqual guidance on their website.

Special consideration

In relation to the use of special consideration, learners must attempt all assessments that are required and when assessments are missed, they should be deferred to the next available opportunity. Where the assessment is the final opportunity and it has been unavoidably missed, for example due to illness, the special consideration process can be used.

Therefore, from the January series we will be advising centres candidates must resit, and only apply for special consideration in summer if they are unable to re-sit then. Unless there are difficulties arising, for example group performances which cannot be repeated, or candidates who are certificating, special consideration will not be awarded.